The Panthers beat the Red Devils by 11 two weeks ago with Hall coming in with an 11-10 mark and EP sporting a similar 9-8 mark.
After a tough loss to Newman on Wednesday, the Panthers came out red hot from behind the arc dropping in 5 first quarter three-balls from five different players and would go on to collect 9 threes in the game.
A steal and runout by Keegan Winckler put the home team up 10-3, three minutes into the game. A Connor Keegan three-ball from the far corner made it an 9 point game at 18-9, with thirty seconds remaining. Hall quickly responded with a three-ball of their own but Caleb Brown got EP’s fifth and final 3-pointer of the quarter at the buzzer to make it 21-12 EP after eight minutes.
An impressive putback on an offensive rebound by Ethan Lavine and a stylish drive by Evan Steimle gave EP their biggest lead of the half at 25-12. Another three-pointer and a driving laup from Keegan put the Panthers up by 14. Then, the offenses left the building as neither team would move the scoreboard for the next four and a half minutes. The Red Devils finally got a shot to fall to end the drought and the half, with the Panthers in command 30-18.
Both teams found their offenses after the break as they traded baskets for the first two minutes of the quarter. Keegan hit his third three of the game from the near corner to make it 37-22 with just over six minutes remaining in the period. In the span of a minute EP hit a pair of threes and a freethrow to grow their lead to 18 and headed to the final quarter with a 15 point advantage.
In the final eight minutes both offenses slowed as the Panthers man-to-man defense continued to give Hall very few open looks. After the Panthers went up by 23, both benches were cleared. The Panther bench players continued the team’s great defense as they held Hall to a single basket in the quarter.
Connor Keegan had 20 points, including four three-pointers, to grab scoring honors with Evan Steimle adding 16 with two from behind the arc. EP had nine players in the scoring column in the win. Curran had 8 to lead the Red Devils.
Panther coach Ryan Winckler was pleased with how his team rebounded for the Newman loss.”Really proud of the effort tonight from our guys. After a really hard physical game against Newman on Wednesday, I thought our guys did a great job in practice yesterday preparing for a really physical Hall team. Defensively, I thought our guys executed the game plan great. We really limited their driving opportunities and contested almost every one of their jump shots. Offensively, I felt like we got in a rhythm early, and then went a little stagnant in the second quarter, but I was so impressed with how our guys came out in the second half and really moved the ball around together, and found the right guy at the right time to take the right shot.”
The F/S pulled out a thriller after trailing most of their game. With the score tied at 39 and twenty seconds to go in the contest, a foul on the Panthers gave Hall a pair of free throws, converting one. With sixteen seconds remaining EP worked for an open look with Sawyer Copeland hitting a short jumper from the elbow to make it 41-40 EP with two seconds remaining. Hall was unable to get the ball inbounds cleanly as the clock expired. The F/S now stand at 9-11.
The Panthers will travel to Kewanee on Monday for a makeup game that was originally scheduled for January 23rd.
